Paul Tucker, the former deputy governor of the Bank of England, is among several figures from the world of finance to receive a knighthood in the New Year honours list, despite claims that he was involved in the Libor interest-rate fixing scandal.

Tucker, who quit the Bank of England this year after losing out on the top job to Canadian Mark Carney, was hauled before the Treasury select committee last year to answer claims that he encouraged Barclays to manipulate rates. Tucker emphatically denied the accusation.

Bob Diamond, the former boss of Barclays, said Tucker had told him: "It did not always need to be the case that we [Barclays] appeared as high [with Libor submissions] as we have recently." Three official reports cleared Tucker of wrongdoing. Until the Libor scandal broke, Tucker had been seen as the runaway favourite to replace Lord King as governor.

He left the Bank in October after 33 years, his last four as deputy governor, to take on an academic role at Harvard University, which he described as a "dream come true".

Tucker was educated at Codsall High School, a comprehensive near Wolverhampton. He joined the Bank in 1980, soon after graduating with a degree in maths and philosophy from Trinity College, Cambridge.

His award is for services to central banking.

Among the other City figures to receive knighthoods are Alan Parker, the founder and chairman of PR and lobbying firm Brunswick, and Ian Cheshire, chief executive of B&Q and Screwfix owner Kingfisher.

Parker, a close friend of David Cameron who has holidayed with the prime minister, is one of the best-connected people in Britain and lobbies the government on behalf of about a quarter of the FTSE 100 list of Britain's biggest companies.

Cameron and Gordon Brown were guests at his wedding to political lobbyist Jane Hardman in 2007.

The prime minister is also close to Cheshire and appointed him to a taskforce of advisers to fight EU red tape. Cheshire, 54, collected £2.6m in pay from Kingfisher last year.

Other business awards go to Alison Carnwath, the chair of property firm Land Securities and the only female chair of a FTSE 100 company, who receives an OBE.

So too does Warren East, the former chief executive of ARM Holdings, the Cambridge-based company, whose technology helps power Apple's iPhone.